Editorial: Anzac Day 2024 - Remembering them is not enough, we must look after the ones who came home

The 28th Māori Battalion Anzac Day service at Whanganui's Pākaitore/Moutoa Gardens. Photo / Bevan Conley

EDITORIAL

Lest we forget, we say every year. Lest we forget, we will say today too. But as the years go by, are we forgetting?

Earlier this month, Herald journalist David Fisher spoke to Janice Smith about her and veteran husband Rob’s efforts to engage with Veterans’ Affairs. Their story is one of deep, continuous, exhausting struggle, and there are other stories like his, of people who have fought for a country that now seemingly refuses to fight for them.

As Fisher writes in his piece: “As Anzac Day approaches, there are increasing signs of dysfunction in the system established to support those who served with the mental and physical impact of their service.”

The government agency charged with meeting veterans’ needs in New Zealand is cutting services and has a year-long waiting list. It’s not even sure how many veterans it represents. There are also huge gaps in military mental health support.

Rob and Janice Smith, pictured in 2023.

The issues are many - too many to list in a short column. The bottom line is this: New Zealand is failing its veterans. Veterans Minister Chris Penk has admitted so himself. Months earlier, former minister Peeni Henare had also told the Herald: “We’ve got to be far better than this.”

Stories like Rob Smith’s are a symbol of our failure to protect those who fought to protect us. Our lack of respect for our veterans is on display in many ways, including the long lag for veterans trying to access services and the fact that we don’t even know how many veterans we have - so how can we ensure we build the services to target their needs? As Fisher points out, this uncertainty has led the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) to include a $1 billion variable in its accounts because it doesn’t know how much veterans’ welfare might cost in the future.

“The basics haven’t been done right for a number of years now. I think it’s a slow creep of increasing demand and the systems haven’t responded particularly well,” Penk said.

The minister has also said that the current waiting average of a year for veterans to have their claims processed is “unacceptable” and says service cuts will help reduce those waiting times, limiting the home-help scheme to focus on what he describes as “core duties”.

It is estimated there are about 30,000 contemporary veterans in New Zealand. There are currently 6863 veterans signed up to receive home-help services ranging from lawn mowing and gardening to massage and podiatry. Of those, more than half (52 per cent) don’t qualify for Veterans’ Affairs’ other support packages because they do not have illness or injury directly connected to a particular deployment or mode of military service.

Veterans’ Affairs leader Bernadine MacKenzie said the number of claims for treatment or rehabilitation from veterans with illness or injury linked to their qualifying service had increased in recent years, as had the complexity of those claims. She said the increased workload had led to veterans waiting more than a year for applications to be processed.

Speaking to Fisher, Penk - who himself does not qualify as a veteran in New Zealand but would be considered one in Australia - says defining who is a veteran is one of his top priorities.

Minister for Veterans Chris Penk. Photo / Mark Mitchell

This all comes amid an attempted overhaul of the Royal New Zealand Returned and Services’ Association (RSA). Rather than a national organisation with branches, the RSA is a disparate collection of more than 100 separate, independent clubs. National RSA president Sir Wayne “Buck” Shelford told the 41 RSAs who met in February that New Zealand created veterans every day.

“We owe it to them and the sacrifices they make to ensure support is there when they need it,” Shelford said.

This Anzac Day, we will remember them.

But we must do more than just remember them. We must look after the ones who came home.